


Almost Siblings

by howllis



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-09
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-12 18:04:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5675449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howllis/pseuds/howllis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura's father is married again after moving on from his wife's death. Carmilla's mother is married again after her divorce. They're like almost siblings?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Changes

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic ever! I've always wanted to write something about this. I did a research about the subject and stuff and I hope to not disrespect anyone. So, if anyone feel like that, please message me.

You knew he needed to move on. He couldn't stop his life. 2 years has been. Your father was one of the sweetest mens you've ever met and he deserved all the happiness in the world. So, he was getting. It was a sunny saturday, summer almost over and the day was perfect for his wedding day. He was nervous, you could tell that.

But it all faded away when her fiance - and also, your stepmother - started to walking down the aisle. She was beautiful. Pale skin, dark hair and a powerful look. He was a lucky man to have her.

You've met Lilita Morgan after a few months of your father dating her. She was a little intimidating at first. They met at work, she was a lawyer of the company and you knew even when they're dating in secret, that he was happy again.

You didn't knew much about her. Just that she had a daughter around your age, but you've never met her tho. You both went to different schools and she never attended to any of meetings of your new "family". "She is with her father.” it was always the excuse. And even today, on the wedding day, she wasn't here. Some vacation trip to Austria or something.

When Lilita and your father said their "I dos", that was it. He was now married again, and to Lilita Morgan - who decided not to change her last name and to be honest, you were kind of happy about it. Only your mother could've been a Hollis. - and she was moving to your house along with her daughter that you haven't met yet.

The reception happened in a small and simple place near to the church. It was beautiful like the wedding. Even tho you’ve spent most of the time talking to your uncles and aunts and being introduced to the small part of Lilita’s family, you were happy.

“Thank you, sweetheart.” Are the words your dad say to you as you hug him.

“Don’t thank me. You deserve to be happy, dad.” You say to him honestly.

Everyone does. Even you. You were happy. But not for yourself, it was for him. After 2 years of the accident that took your mother away, something was always missing.

You left the reception earlier than the other guests and went home, the urge to cry was big. After getting rid of the dress, taking a shower and getting into comfortable clothes you went to your mother’s studio. Or at least what is left of it since it has been turned into Lilita’s daughter room. Some boxes with her old draws and paintings, some materiais and some pictures of you that she kept on her desk work.

You cry because it hurts. It still hurts a lot know that she’ll never come back and that it was part your fault. You take the boxes to your room and place one of the pictures - it’s the last one posed together. You, your father and her.- You place it on your nightstand and think that your family was everything of good in your life. One day you hope that this pain will go away.

#

“It’s your mother’s wedding.” He says and you sigh. Yeah, yeah you’ve heard that. All day. Your mother is getting married today in Canada with Dan Hollis. Owner of HTech and her boss.

“I know.” You say and before your father can say anything, you cut him off. “I was aware of that when you said it this morning. I’ll send her a card.”

You start to walk away and make your way towards the door, but be seems to want to have this conversation.

“Carmilla. It’s her wedding. You can’t just sent her a card. You should’ve been there, actually. At least call her to wish good luck or something.”

“Call her? Really, dad? Okay.” You stop for a second cause there’s no way you’re calling your mother on her wedding day. “A card and flowers! That’s it. Perfect. Can I go now? It’s my last day here and I don’t want to waste it talking about mother’s wedding.”

“We’re not over here.” He says and points to the door and shaking his head in a signal for you to leave.

You know he’s right and that you should’ve been there, but you didn’t wanted to. You knew you’d probably ruin things and how important this was for her. At least she was marrying a nice guy.

It’s not that you father wasn’t a good man, but he had cheated on her. And on her previously wife. She was marrying the owner of HTech, the company she has been working for as a full time job. You found out that she was seeing someone because no one could ever like spending hours at the office and at saturdays too.

When she told you she was dating Dan Hollis it was a surprise cause she never told you things about her life. Of course she was a good mother, but the two of you hadn't exactly what you call “mother and daughter relationship”.

You accepted well the whole marriage thing and didn’t questioned, she just told you she wanted to make it work and that she had a daughter that was okay with it, too.

Yes, a daughter. You’d be having a stepsister now and you’d have to live with her since you were moving to Dan’s house.

While you were at the park trying to draw something or at least forget that in 3 days or so you’d be living in a new house with two new people. Dan was cool, but you didn’t knew his daughter yet. The last chance before jumping into the girl’s house was today at the wedding you didn’t attended to.

 

#

 

You were sitting in your bed looking through your textbooks for the school year to star again when your hear a knock on the door. It’s your dad. He was back after a week in honeymoon.

He has that look on his face, the look of ‘I need to tell you something’. “Hey dad, everything’s okay?” You ask pulling the books away.

“Yes, it is, honey. I was just thinking about something.” He says sitting in your bed.

“About what?” You ask worried looking at him.

“I was thinking that maybe you should go back to school.” The words are out of his mouth and you freeze. School. The flashes of you stumbling through the halls, heavy breathe and blurry vision.

When he said your mother would be happy you’d come back to school you knew he wasn’t lying. She was always encouraging you to do things. When you left school in the middle of junior year because of her death you said to yourself you’d never come back to that place.

The panic attacks were the smallest of your problems during school and maybe for that, you weren't ready to go back to. Therapy helped you, but not enough. Not yet.

You take a deep breathe and tuck some hair behind your ear to look calm.

“Dad, I don’t know if I’m ready.” You really think you’re not ready, it can happen again at anytime. “Please, don’t make me. What’s wrong with home school?” The calm you thought you had, it’s now gone.

“Honey, I’m not making you do anything you’re not ready for. I’m just telling you to not close yourself to the options for this. It’ll be good for you and if you allow me-” He stops for a second and take your hands. “You mother would want to you try. She would support you through this. Because you’re strong just like she was.”

Everytime he compares you to her you feel honored and a little bit sad, no one will ever be like her, not even you.

“Thank you, dad. And it’s okay, you can talk about her with me whenever you like, you know?” You say and lean in for a hug. You rest your chin on his shoulder and feel safe to his embrace and his words.

“I love you, Laura. Don’t you ever forget that.” He rubs your back softly and hugs you tighter.

“I love you too, dad. Both of you.” You pull away from his embrace and smile at him. “And I’ll think about it, okay? I promise.”

He smiles at you. “That’s a start. Let me know if want to, I’ll make a few calls and you’d be back in the first days.” He gets up and vives you a shy smile before leave your room. It’s true, you’ll think about it. It’s something huge, if you say yes even if school started like today, you’d be there thanks to him.

The power of the owner of HTech. Your dad was an important business man and the principal of any school would be more than happy to grant him a wish.

  


*

 

It was sunday, which meant you have to decide to take the offer or not. On monday school would start again and even tho your dad could make you start in the middle of the semester, you don’t want to miss any classes. It’s not a thing that you’d do.

In the morning after waking up earlier than usual you stay in bed thinking. What would your mother say? You know it’s wrong think about of what would she do or think. You can’t help it, it’s something normal. You admired her so much and missed her so much.

Then, that was it.

A way to fight against your ghost. Or better, her ghost. Move on from your fear and with your life, try to make your decisions not based on her anymore. She wasn’t alive, it was time for you to accept it.

You tell your dad breakfast that you’ll come back to school in front of Lilita. She’s happy for you too, she even says that maybe you and her daughter could be friends.

When your dad asks about her, Lilita says she’ll come back from her trip in early in the morning or by the morning.

You’ll live with a new girl that you don’t even know the name.

 

#

 

It’s was always sad to go home after a whole month with your father. You miss him everyday. Since he moved to Europe you were barely seeing him. When he asked you to spend your summer with him you almost died of joy. With the whole wedding and moving out thing, it was nice to go away for a while.

But it was time to come back. On the driveway to the airport you were quiet until he decided to talk.

“How was the wedding?” It’s the question he asks.

“Good, I guess. I’ll know when I get there.” You answer. He’ll be mad that you didn’t called your mother. This you know for sure.

“I can’t believe it. Carmilla, it’s your mother. She’s your parent as much as I am.” He says angry. “She’ll be so mad at you and she’ll blame me too.”

“You’re worried about that?” You ask.

“It’s not that. What if she thinks that I keep you out of her life, huh?” You regret the question know, you could never imagine that he feared this. “What if she thinks that I make you don’t like the guy she’s married now? I can’t lose you. I’m not an role model, but I love my children. I don’t think I could survive without seeing you or your brother.”

“I’m-” You don’t think you could survive without seeing him either. “I’m sorry, father. I’ll apologize with her and hey, she could never forbid me from seeing you.” You say smiling at him. “William’s mother in the other hand.”

“Don’t.” He laughs. “You know I love you, right?” He asks removing his eyes from the road and smiling at you.

“I know.” You say cause you really do. And you love him too, probably the person you love the most in this world.

“Good.” He looks at the road again and both of you keep quiet until the airport.

*

You didn’t wanted a cheesy goodbye, but you couldn’t help yourself when your flight was announced. You wrap your arms around your father’s neck, smelling his strong scent for the last time for months now on.

“God, I’ll miss you.” He says and strokes your hair. “Please text me when you land.”

“I promise. And I’ll miss you too.” You try not to talk to much, because maybe you’re about to cry. “I told you I knew you loved me, but I want to know if you know that I love you.”

“Of course I do.” He gives you a smile. A warm one. And yes, you do love him and this months will kill you. You’re crying because it’s already killing you. You wish you could just stay here with him.

“I should probably go.” You say pulling away. “Thanks for the summer.”

“Anytime, weirdo.” He messes your hair and you walk away almost not hearing the _‘Good luck’_ he says.

It’ll be hard. New home and a new family. You feel like your home and your family are in here, but you have no choice. You have to face it. In a few hours you’ll be sleeping in a new room and living with a girl that you even know the name.

  
Yes, it’ll be almost like a family. Or something like that.


	2. First Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They meet.

6am. Time for you to wake up. It was all starting again, your first day back to school. You remember your last day, it was a horrible. The day you decided to quit school you passed out during gym class after the most disgusting person made you pass out.

But now it was time to forget this and time to forget everything that happened when you were there and start something new. This was going to be your senior and last year of high school.

You walked down the hall to make your way downstairs and found the door of the old studio closed. Lilita’s daughter arrived from her trip in the middle of night - since you hadn't slept at all, you heard her. - Your dad was the only at the table and back to his usual suit and phone in hands rolling through dozens of emails from the company.

“Good morning.” He says to you not taking his eyes from the phone.

“Morning, dad.” You answer and the less tired voice you can make. “Where’s everyone?” You ask sitting in the chair across him.

“I don’t know exactly, but I guess Lilita had to go earlier to the company so she could catch up with some archived things and her daughter arrived at 4am and I think she’s sleeping.” This time he looked at you. He was happy, you could see that.

“Yeah, I heard.” It’s all you can say.

“I’m not sure about this, but I figured-” He says standing up. “I asked the company’s driver to drive you this morning. It could be a regular thing, if you want to.”

Of course he thought of everything. You haven’t thought about how you were going to get to school, but you’re glad he did.

“Thanks, dad. That’s great. And if you don’t mind, I’ll leave now. I don’t want to be late on my first day.” You say and he nods. It’s too early to leave, but you don’t plan on going on the car all the way.

When you left school, you had your reasons and one of them was because your economic situation. Everyone always assumed that the “rich girl” could never have problems because she is rich.

When you get into the car the driver already knows where he’s supposed to drop you, but you can’t let people see you arriving with a driver. You ask the driver to stop near the school, two blocks before.

The car ride is calm except for the palms of your hands that you’re wiping on years jeans. You’re feeling very nervous and scared, but the deep breathes and the words that your therapist advised you to use are helping. ‘I’m Laura Hollis. I’m seventeen years old and I’m fine.’

“Are sure of this, Miss Hollis?” The driver asks you when he stops the car. You’re not, obviously.

“Yes, I am. Thank for asking, anyway.” You give him a gentle smile. “And could you please not tell this to my dad?” You wait for his answer.

“Sure, Miss Hollis. Mr. Hollis won’t hear a thing. Have a good day.” He nods to you and unlock the doors. You’re glad he’s a nice guy, cause you’ll do this everyday from now on.

“Thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow.” You smile at him and get out of the car and wait for him to go away.

You start walking towards the school. It’s not too hot, so it’ll be a good walk. You don’t regret the decision of coming back to school, you needed to be brave, but it still scares you. Maybe just enjoy the classes and don’t think too much about what will happen will be a good start to you.

You’re almost entering the school when your phone buzzes. It’s a text from your dad.

**_Dad_** : _Everything is settle for you to start. Just pass by the principal’s office to give your signature._

**_Laura:_ ** _Will do. Thanks, dad. :)_

As you type your answer you enter and you’re glad you’re typing an answer cause it makes you enter without looking back. Again, your dad being supportive with you - even without knowing. - Before toss your phone on your pocket you look at the clock, it’s 7am already. You enter the principal’s office and his secretary tells you to get in.

When you get in he gets up of his chair - of course he does - and extends his hand for you to shake. “I’m so glad you decided to come back, Miss Hollis.” He says excited.

“Yeah, me too.” You lie.

“It won’t be long, you just have to sign this papers and you can go to your first class. Here, your schedule.” He hands you a piece of paper. Your monday starts with math. What a great way to start the week and the school year.

“Thanks.” You answer. He puts the papers for you to sign on the desk and gives you a pen. That’s it, there’s no turning back now. You’re officially back to regular high school. Shit.

After signing the papers you leave his office and look at the time on your phone again, it’s 7:15am. You’re fifteen minutes later, but the principal said you could go or skip the first class, but you want to watch it. You don’t want to start the year losing a math class. At least one thing remains, you’re the same nerd you were before.

You’re looking at your schedule to see how the rest of the week is going to be when you feel something hit against you and you drop your papers.

“Watch it!” A broody and nothing politely voice says.

“Sorry.” You pick your papers from the floor and stand up apologize again. “I wasn’t looking.”

“I could see that.” She says ironically. It suits her. When you finally to stop and stare at her you see a pale skin, wave hair and all black clothes girl. It must be a joke that she looks like that and it’s rude and sarcastic.

You walk away from her without answering her. Whoever this girl is you’ll probably won’t see her again - maybe in a few classes, but you can ignore her, so it’s okay.-

When you enter in the classroom surprised eyes stare at you. Eyes that didn’t expect to see you again. You know they’re not looking with curiosity, they’re looking now like they used to before you left.

You hand the teacher the paper that says you’re now a student again and take a sit on the back. You’re surprised that no one turned around and looked at you. When he’s about to continue the class here she is again. The rude girl, the one who looked like just got out from a bad teenage movie. She sits in the back, but doesn’t look at you.

After a few more minutes - since you’ve lost the first minutes - the class was over. You had history now which was good because you couldn’t take more numbers. You closed your textbook slower than usual, you didn’t wanted to leave the classroom with the others and risk on stumble in them.

“You know who came back?” A familiar voice caught your attention before you pass through the door. A very familiar one. Also senior, Wilson Kirsch.

“Who?” He is speaking to the broody girl. And the who was you. 

“How can you not know who?” Another familiar voice. This time was Danny Lawrence who asked the girl. “Are you serious?”

She doesn’t say anything.

“Bro.” Kirsch says to her. “The freak.” There it was. You were waiting for this, you knew they would never forget.

“The murder girl?” And she finally asks.

You think you heard enough accidently so you leave the room almost running and fighting against the tears that want to come out of your eyes.

You are not ready.

*

You arrive at your new home at 4am and until you find out how to get there it was almost 5am. You don’t call your mother because you never call her for help and that wouldn’t not be the first time. When you finally find the house that you’d be living from now on it was WOW. Just WOW. You know Dan Hollis has money, but not that much of money. It wasn’t a mansion, but it was a nice house - a very nice house -. The key is were your mother said it would be when you last talked to her before you arrive at town.

Your room is upstairs down the hall. It is nice and big, much better than the other you had on your old house. All of your belongs are there, some of them already settled and others in boxes. At least, the bed is ready and there was nothing you want more than a bed right now.

#

When you finally slept it was almost 6am and the sun was rising. You know it’s monday and it’s the first day back to school, but you really need to sleep because you’re tired and you know what’s coming. School, tests, your mother, her new husband and meeting his daughter. You don’t know anything about this girl. Last night, when you passed in the living room before making your way upstairs, there were some pictures frames, but you didn’t stop to look, the exhaustion was bigger.

Your finally well deserved sleep don’t last much when your mother enter the room without knocking or anything. She just sits on the bed and shakes you.

“I’ll pretend that you’re not pretending to be sleeping.” She says.

“And I’ll pretend that you’re not here.” You say to her, covering your face.

“Wake up, get dressed and go downstairs. You have school today and have to meet Laura.” Laura. That’s her name. Your stepsister - if you can call her like that - name’s Laura. But even with that name or anything you’ll get up. No way.

“Still pretending that you’re not here.” You say and turn to your side, giving your back to her. You hear her sigh. You wait a few more seconds and she get up and leave the room. Finally, you need to sleep.

You go back to sleep, but it seems that your mother is willing to not let you sleep this morning because she’s calling you. It’s 7am. She letted you sleep for a hour.

“What.” You say picking the phone.

_ “Are you dressed already? Better, are you at school already?”  _

“No. I’m dressed in my bed sheets.” You say smirking.

_ “What a shame, dear. I thought that after a month with your father you’d be more willing to go school. He really changed you?”  _ She says and you can’t believe she’s doing this and you remember the words of your father echoing on your mind. 

“I am, mother.” You say. 

_ “Get dressed and go to school, please.”  _ And she hangs up. 

Your mother and her games. Even after a while divorced, she still knows your father and even better, she knows you. She knows you don’t want to stop seeing him and that he would die if he lost his right of seeing you. You get up and make your way to the bathroom. The house is empty and the room of what you presume to be the girl is now opened.

When you go back to your room, your phone is shining in the dark. On the screen there’s a text from her.

**_Mother_ ** _ : Hurry up. We don’t want for you to be even more late, do we? Have a good day. _

It's all it says. She will never stop. One of the things with mother is that she knows everyone’s weakness so she can always gets what she wants. After the text that you won’t answer you get dressed really fast and leave the house without eat or anything - you’re adjusted to the canadian life yet - and go to the garage. You can’t find your car there. It was supposed to be there since all of your stuff are here. 

“Can I help you, Miss?” A man all dressed up in a suit asks you.

“Yes, I think. Do you happen to see my car?” You ask him looking to the other two cars in there.

“Which one do you own, Miss?” The “Miss” thing. You’re definitely in a rich house.

“A black truck.” 

“Right. Follow me, please.” He says and leaves the garage and go to the back of the house and there it is, your truck. Shining as new, as you’ve never seen in months. “Mr. Hollis asked me to wash it and let it ready for you.”

You walk around the truck and pass your finger on it. No sign of dirty or anything.

“You’re his stepdaughter, right?” He asks.

No. “Yeah, something like that.” You enter the truck and put on your seat belt. Even the inside smells like lavender. “Thank you.” You say to the suited one and make a note to thank Dan Hollis later.

#

On car to the school from Dan’s house it takes less than 20 minutes and since you’re late, there’s no traffic. When you arrive you go running by the doors and there’s no one on the hallway, you’re so late. To get to your first class you have to walk by the principal’s office and you hope that he won’t see you. 

You feel a body hit against yours in front of his office. Great, you really needed that. 

“Watch it.” You say to the girl who’s picking up some papers from the ground. You barely hear the ‘Sorry’ she says to you and walk away. More like run away. 

Math as a way to start the monday was the worst. Yes, you lost several minutes of class, but you’re still so tired from the trip and the words of your mother in your head. You can’t lose your father. The good - or the bad - thing is that you have this class with Kirsch, who somehow, managed to be even more into basketball, your almost friend and regular amazon, Danny Lawrence and the Ginger Twins, Perry and LaFontaine. 

When a girl enters the classroom you think that at least someone is even more late than you are. She hands a paper to the teacher and you don’t know how can she be new, she looks so familiar to you. You look around to see if someone greets her, but everyone is quiet. They just observe her when she takes the sit next to yours. LaF is the only who is looking in a different way at her. The rest of the class just look a crowd from a horror movie.

The class ends quickly than you thought and as soon as it happens, everyone is whispering on the outside. You get closer to them and hear ‘She’s back.’ ‘Why?’ You’re not a fan of gossip or talking behind people's back, but when Kirsch asks if you know who came back and you ask a honest “Who?”, Danny says “How can you not know who?”

You look at them with a blank face.

“Bro.” Kirsch says with a sigh. “The freak.” He completes. And now you know. Not know know, but you do. Rumors around school are powerful even for someone like you who hates rumors. 

“The murder girl?” You ask. The girl who everyone says that killed her own mother and then she freaked out. You don’t know the story and you don’t know her. LaFontaine is about to say something when everyone hear the noise that the door makes and someone runs out of the classroom.

You don’t need to know the girl to know that she’s the one who passed running by the door and close to you and the rest.

“You’re a bunch of idiots. You don’t even know her or what happened.” They say. 

“And you do?” Danny asks her raising her eyebrows.

“No, but that doesn’t mean I’ll talk about her like I know what happened.” They look to all of you. 

“I don’t know why you still defend her. You were friends like ages ago.” Kirsch says to them and before they can reply, Perry puts a hand on their shoulder and they leave. 

  
At least now you know that the girl was LaFontaine’s friend, but still she’s like a blur in your head. Another proof that you’re not good with people and don’t pay attention enough. You think in how the girl must have felt after hearing people call her freak and shit, even you called her murder without knowing that she’s really a murder. Maybe you should have apologized to her, but it was too late. She ran away and you’ll problem won’t recognize. You didn’t saw her face.

#

When class ends you go home as fast as you can, you’re still really tired, but also thinking about the girl. 

When you get home and throw you fall into your bed almost sleeping. So tired. When you’re almost shutting your eyes, you hear the doorbell ring. You ignore cause someone else will pick up. But it doesn’t, it rings again. 

You drag yourself downstairs and open the door.

A girl. Honey blond hair, brown eyes. Short and looking at you like you’re looking at her. Like you’re not sure of who she is.

“Uh- Can I help you?” You ask her. 

“Yes. You can let me in, I forgot my key, sorry.” She tries to get in.

“I’m sorry, but my mom doesn’t let me talk to strangers or let them in into my house.” You say to her and she laughs.

“Well, I could same the same about you. Since you’re in my house.” She says and smiles. She is Laura. Laura Hollis, Dan’s daughter. “You can check the pictures or even my ID. I’m-”

“Laura.” You finish for her and let her get in the house, closing the door. 

“Yes. And you must me Lilita’s daughter?” She asks you.

“Must I be?” You say. “I don’t get a name?”

“I’m sorry. She never told me your name.” Laura says. “Nice to finally meet you.” She offers her hand for you to shake.

“Carmilla.” You take her hand. “Nice to meet you too, Laura.” You say realising her hand.

She smiles and make her way towards the stairs, but turn around again when you call her.

“I’m sorry, I’ve never seen your face. Not even when I arrived last night and my mother never showed me a picture of you either.” Maybe you need her to apologize you because of what you said earlier.

“Of course you have.” She says to you and frown your eyebrows. “You ran into me this morning. I mean, I ran into you. Which I’m sorry again. And-” She pauses. “I’m also the murder girl, so.” 

Shit. You think, but don’t say. She go upstairs and leaves you on the edge of the stairs thinking that you’re an idiot. She is Laura Hollis. LaFontaine’s nerd friend that you’ve never met. The girl who you said to ‘Watch it’ this morning, the girl you called murder not because you think she is one, but because you made a stupid question. 

And she’s also Laura Hollis, Dan Hollis’s daughter and your new stepsister.

*

The broody girl was your new stepsister.

You knew her face was familiar and when you heard her voice you were sure it was the girl from this morning. And you heard her and the others talking about you. The first day back to school for sure it had been full of emotions.

You really didn’t cared when you said to her she yiu were the ‘murder girl’, she said it herself. And to be honest, it didn’t bothered you that much anymore. You saw LaF and Perry at school, you thought that maybe say hi would have been nice, but they were with Carmilla and the rest.

But again, it didn't bothered you anymore. You left Carmilla staring at you in the stairs and went to your room. You felt the tears wanting to roll down in your cheek but you holded them when you heard footsteps approaching your room.

“Hey.” She says in the doorframe. “I didn’t mean it, I mean I was just asking them a question.” She continues and you continue to stare at the window.

“It’s okay.” You say to her. Still fighting against the tears.

“I didn’t mean it, okay?” Carmilla says.

“Don’t bother.” You say rispldy.

“Okay.” She says. “If you’re saying.” You want to look at her and tell her that it’s okay, but you’re not sure that it is.

“Can you please leave?” You start looking into your backpack to give her the idea that you need to do something so she could leave.

So she does. She leaves and you try to fight against the tears again because cry everytime someone talks about this it’s not exactly the ideia of being strong or to leave the ghosts behind. You think that maybe she don’t know the whole story or never heard the real rumors, but that isn’t possible, she was already studying at the same school when everything happened.

You try to focus on what you have to do, like homework before you can face Carmilla later. And your dad. You can look disconfortable in front of him because of your stepsister. He needs to be happy and you can’t ruin this new kind of family. You already ruined one a few years ago.

She knows, she can’t not know. And she called you murder, you hearded it yourself. But at least she called of what you really is.

#

When it gets late everyone’s home again and at dinner time – you try to say you’re not hugry, but your dad says that ‘We need to bond as a family’, you can’t run away from dinner with your new ‘family’. – You have to face her again. She doesn’t say anything and neither do you.

“So, you two finally met.” Your dad says looking at her and then at you. “How did it go?” Terrible, you think.

“Normal.” You say and Carmilla only nods.

“Normal?” Lilita asks you. “Just normal? She didn’t said anything rude to you or gave you 

nicknames?” Her continues and stare at her. There’s a really surprised tone in her voice, like she wasn’t recognizing her own daughter.

“Mother, I-” Carmilla, but you don’t let her finish.

“No. She was really nice to me. I forgot my key and she opened the door for. That’s good, right?” You try to joke and Lilita smiles. Carmilla looks confused and you can’t blame her, but she looked upset with her mother’s words.

“Well, that’s great, Laura.” She says to you. “She’s not used to be nice unless it is her father.” 

“Guess I’m lucky then.” You finally say to her giving a short smile. “I need to check some things for tomorrow. Excuse me.” It’s not a lie, you need to. You want to know which classes you’ll have tomorrow and maybe find out who’ll probably be in them. 

When you go upstairs you still don’t understand the conversation between mother and daughter. Or the almost conversation. A girl like Carmilla - who again, looked that went out from a bad teenager movie - would never be quiet and listening things like that.

You and your mother always had great conversations during dinner. Actually, every time. You think of maybe going to the studio, but there’s nothing there anymore. Just the big paint on the wall that you’ll never look at again. 

You can also hear the screams when you close your eyes and think of her. Or what left of her. 

**Author's Note:**

> \- Thank you for reading. :)  
> \- English isn't my first language. Feel free to correct me!


End file.
